History of Maybach

﻿In 1909 was founded "Maybach", which gave its name to the famous engineer and designer Wilhelm Maybach, who worked previously in the Daimler, but left after a conflict in 1907. However, the new firm of Wilhelm and his son Charles, from its inception until the end of the First World War was engaged in the construction of aircraft power units, working with Earl Zeppelina and German armed forces.

The turning point came in 1918, when the outcome of the war was prohibited the manufacture of any military and aviation equipment in Germany. However, Wilhelm Maybach did not resume his company, entrusting his son to find buyers for all production facilities of the company. But luck was again found the Maybach, this time in the face of the Dutch company development team, which ordered the father and the son 1000 automotive powertrains.

The engine for the development team was a 5.7-liter destillery motor power of 70 horsepower. In the first year was made 150 copies of the engine W2, but in the period from 1921 to 1925, the production decreased to 50 copies per year, due to the aggravated economic situation of the Dutch company, which declared bankruptcy in late 1925. Since Wilhelm Maybach decided to produce cars themselves.

The first model of the company Maybach W3 was introduced in 1921, winning the award for original design, and the engine model is located the engine W2, with the same 5,7 liters for the brand "development team". However, the capacity was increased to 90 horsepower. This was followed by experiments with the installation of aircraft engines on the standard chassis Mercedes, owned by Karl Maybach, but the project was quickly collapsed.

The next model Maybach W5 was introduced in 1926, as in the case of the first model, the body design was designed by a famous designer Herman SPSS. Under the hood the model W5 is one of the most powerful powertrain that time seven liter engine with 120 HP. However, gearbox has left much to be desired, and in 1928 came the update model, called the Maybach W5 SG, where was presented gearbox with Overdrive transmission. However, when saving the remaining technical specifications, buyers of the new model could choose specification personally for themselves, which greatly increased the price of the car. In the same year were presented exclusive versions with motors 90 and 100 horsepower, which was supplied for modifications coupé and convertible.

In 1929, was presented model Maybach 12, equipped with the same seven-liter engine, but with a capacity of 150 horsepower. Because of the increased capacity was significantly increased weight of the vehicle, which did not prevent the 12th model to become a leader in its class. In addition, we started producing modifications DS8 in 1930, which was equipped with 8-liter twelve-power unit with a capacity of 200 horsepower. The car was dedicated to Wilhelm Maybach, who died in 1929.

During the reign of the Third Reich company "Maybach" has acquired a monopoly in the manufacture of engines for tanks, trains, and ships. However, such a high position was due not to the fact that the products of the company Karl Maybach was the best, and the fact that he had friendly relations with all the elite of the Reich, including Adolf Hitler, who strongly encouraged to Karl.

By the time of the bombing of the American aviation plant "Maybach", the company's products was set at 95% of tanks and artillery tractors, but due to high demand, had a number of disadvantages and technical miscalculations that led to conflict Karl Maybach with Bormann. After the destruction of the plant, Karl Maybach was declared an enemy of the nation and together with engineers once the largest automobile company in Germany, was expelled from the country. New haven Maybach was France, where until 1951 Carl tried to manufacture cars together with a longtime partner of the German Spon, but many technical shortcomings were not allowed to begin mass production of new models of the brand. At the same time, Karl Maybach successfully worked for the French government, creating a whole range of powerful engines for the army.

In 1955 he began work on the creation of a car "Maybach", American in style, but the car did not like myself and Karl hopes to revive production were left. Karl Maybach died in 1960, and the new owner of the destroyed factories of the company in Germany and engineering offices in France became the Daimler. Management of Daimler decided to rename the company "Maybach" and continue the production of power units at the facilities of a former competitor, was registered firm "MTU".

In 1997, the leadership of Daimler decided to revive the legendary brand, presented at the Tokyo motor show conceptual model Maybach with six-liter power unit, designed for installation on the new generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class. The company's plants "Maybach" came to a full cycle of production of a new model car only in 2002, after more than five years of work on the creation of a competitive premium car. Maybach 57 was built on the basis of a full size sedan Mercedes-Benz S-Class W140. Under the hood is located 5.7-liter power unit with a capacity of 555 horsepower, and the trim was created exclusively from natural materials.

In the same year was presented extended version of this model, called the Maybach 62, equipped with the seven-litre power unit with a capacity of 630 horsepower. One of the main differences was the presence of more than one million options for setting up personal comfort rear passengers. Both models were made by hand.

In 2005 he was presented the Maybach Exelero, released in a single copy for a tire company "Food", which used this car for testing new types of tires. However, later this model was sold to a buyer from the United States of America for a record $ 8 million. In 2006 it was presented the second generation of the 57 and 62 models, which have more powerful powertrain from Mercedes-Benz AMG, but came under heavy criticism due to the lack of significant improvements affecting the price increased by 10% compared with 2005. In 2009, the new car has been modernized, due to which the power of the engines rose to 640 horsepower, and two years were presented armored version 57S and 62S.

However, the management of the Daimler was not satisfied low-selling luxury car brand Maybach" and did not want to invest serious money into modernization of production facilities, to reduce the time of Assembly of one car from 60 days to 20. Thus, just retired from the repercussions of the global financial crisis, Daimler, suggested, in the person of CEO Dieter Zetsche, the shareholders of the company two ways to solve the problem is to minimize the activity of the "Maybach" or to start producing cars in collaboration with another company, which was supposed to be English "Aston Martin". However, the deal fell through, despite the fact that the engineers of the British company has prepared the concept of the creation of the second generation Maybach models.

In the same year was made an official statement about the imminent closure of the firm "Maybach" in 2013, and opened the sale of all inventory model instances 57 and 62 of different modifications with a discount of 30%. And on 1 December 2012 had been circulated a new price list for dealers cars Daimler, where the model of the "Maybach" has been marked as obsolete. However, the engineering staff of the company had not been disbanded and moved to Mercedes-Benz, where he began work on the new generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class.